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What's Messing With Your Health: Not Enough Sleep

What's Messing With Your Health: Not Enough Sleep

Sleep may be the last thing on your crazy to-do list, but your body needs it to stay at a healthy weight. Because, when you’re sleep-deprived, you reach for unhealthy foods, like chips and candy, to get a quick energy hit—even when you aren’t hungry. Plus, you never feel like exercising!

Fix it! Try Your Best to Get 8 Hours of Sleep When You Can.

Fix it! Try Your Best to Get 8 Hours of Sleep When You Can.

Here are some tips that can help:

Switch to decaf drinks after 4p.m., since caffeine stays in your body for six hours.

Exercise a little every day. Even small bursts of physical activity, like dancing around your room for ten minutes after school, can help you fall asleep easier. (Do it at least a few hours before bed so that you don’t rev yourself up too much!)

Disconnect yourself. When you’re ready to go to bed, turn off your phone and computer so that you’re not tempted to keep checking for texts or emails.

Don’t stay up super late on weekends. You may think sleeping in will reverse the damage, but not sticking to a sleeping schedule just confuses your body and makes it harder to sleep the next night.

Avoid falling asleep with the TV on. The light from the TV stimulates your brain and prevents you from getting the good, deep sleep your body needs. So if you must use it to fall asleep, set the sleep timer on the remote, so it automatically goes off after an hour or so.